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Welcome to the
IARS Volunteering Information Page
IARS defines volunteering as any activity, which is carried
out for the good of others without promise of reward. We therefore believe that
volunteering is an important way to make a positive contribution to our
communities and particularly to benefit those young people who are often
forgotten or marginalised (for example young people from BAME communities,
refugee and asylum seekers and LGBT or disabled young people). We, as a diverse
group of young people from many different backgrounds with our own particular
strengths and weaknesses, find great value in working together, to look past
these differences, to promote cohesion and human rights values amongst other
young people.
IARS works with approximately 20-30 new or existing
volunteers per month. Their ages and backgrounds range but we tend to focus on
those young people who tend to be excluded. Volunteering here at IARS does not
mean collecting donations or answering phone calls. Volunteering means taking
leadership and developing ownership over a project that will help improve other
young peoples' lives. This means that our volunteers commit themselves to carry
out a block of activities including undertaking training, designing and
delivering their own research project, writing, public speaking and networking.
To understand what volunteering at IARS means we have included some of our
volunteer projects here.
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YOUTH
EMPOWERMENT PROJECT (YEP)
YEP is a youth-led cooperative initiative funded by
V that aims to work directly with 150 young people (16-25) from various
ethnic, cultural, economic and racial backgrounds by empowering them to
influence policy and practices that affect them. YEP will seek to
promote human rights, equality and respect to young people to combat
discrimination and exclusion. The project will be delivered through five
types volunteering opportunities: Research & Policy, Events &
Networking, Campaigning & Awareness Raising, Creative & Art, Ambassadors
&Champions. Click the title above to find out more, click
here
to apply to become a YEP volunteer or join the Youth Empowerment Project
Face Book group. |
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YOUNG PEOPLE'S HATE CRIME
PROJECT 
A research project led by a group of young
volunteers and funded by the
Young Researcher Network of the National
Youth Agency, to gain a youth perspective on policies that tackle hate
crime. The project will be carried out with young people in London,
Manchester and Liverpool.
Through engaging the views of
young people on issues relating to race hate and restorative
justice this YRN funded project endeavoured to address the gap
that exists in the formulation of policy. In exploring the
perspectives of young people this research garnered an
understanding of how young people experience race hate in the
cities of Bradford, Liverpool and London. This has allowed for
the dynamics through which race hate impacts young people in
different locations to be better understood and how within these
varying contexts the research questioned how useful restorative
justice is perceived to be. Throughout each stage of the
research young people have been consistently involved by
contributing to focus group discussions, attending interviews
and also analysing and writing up the findings that will form
part of the final report.
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HOMOPHOBIC BULLYING AND HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT
A youth led research and policy project exploring
how human rights principles can combat homophobic bullying in schools.
The project is led by a young person and carried out with other young
people across England. |
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MEASURING YOUNG PEOPLE'S LEGAL CAPABILITY
A youth led research and policy project exploring
the legal capability of young people particularly those from
marginalised groups. The project is carried out for PLENET, for more
information click
here |
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